


win or lose, it's still me and you

by antikytheras



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Bickering, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, also i still haven't played this game, but here's my take on their characters and relationship anyway, did yall know that they're twenty, not that it really affects leon that much in this fic, post-championship loss, undercover dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22588603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antikytheras/pseuds/antikytheras
Summary: It’s been hard going out together in public when Raihan’s the strongest gym leader in the region and his boyfriend isthenation’s most beloved ex-champion.Unfortunately, Leon hasideas, and Raihan has no choice but to go along with them because Leon’s spent ten years winning and Raihan’s spent ten years losing, and Leon's certainly not about to breakthatstreak any time soon.And yes, that statistic includes their arguments, too.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan
Comments: 18
Kudos: 144





	win or lose, it's still me and you

**Author's Note:**

> i originally started this as a timed writing prompt thing but it kinda grew out of hand ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> prompt: undercover dates  
> time: (69 + 125) mins with no additional proofreading

‘No,’ Raihan says flatly.

Leon’s still grinning. He won’t stop grinning. Raihan wants to either kick him off his (very comfortable) bed or toss him out his open window. The birds are chirping far too cheerily outside for seven in the morning, and as far as Raihan’s concerned, Leon can defenestrate himself and join them.

Instead of murdering the nation’s most beloved public figure, Raihan settles for quashing his (much less murderous) urge to bury his face in his hands, because that would mean that he’s lost, and unfortunately, one of the particular quirks that comes with his boyfriend being nigh-unbeatable— for _ten whole goddamn years, what the_ hell _, Leon_ — is his seeming inability to even comprehend the idea of losing. Even if it’s an argument. With his very sane, logical, and reasonable boyfriend.

So he tries again, from a slightly different angle this time. ‘There’s no way this is gonna work,’ he insists, arms crossed. He _will_ stand his ground. This is a stupid idea. Unlike Leon, he still has some remaining vestiges of shame, even if his millions of followers (for whatever reason) believe otherwise.

But Leon hasn’t held on to his tacky, big-boy champion cape (for _ten whole years, how the ever-loving_ fuck) by rolling over in the face of what most common folk (like poor, simple, has-never-won-a-battle-against-his-boyfriend Raihan) would term “impossibilities”. And so it’s with that awful, insufferably smug grin that Leon asks, ‘And how would you know? It’s not like you’ve ever tried it.’

And _now_ Raihan buries his face in his hands and screams.

And this is how Raihan finds himself getting dragged to a department store by his boyfriend. While they’re both wearing _sunglasses_. Because _apparently_ , Leon wants to believe that all of Galar has the same grasp on object permanence as a baby.

‘I told you this would work,’ Leon says mildly, scrunching his nose as he smiles. It’s an angelic smile. It’s the same exact kind of smile that’s made all of Galar fall head-over-heels for him all these years, and which Raihan is, regrettably, also weak to.

Raihan can feel the weight of a thousand stares upon them. It probably isn’t even that much of an exaggeration either, because this department store is almost as bustling as the famed one in Kanto’s Cerulean City, which means that on top of the five percent of the entire Galar region staring at his _stupid_ face right now, he also has tourists from all over the world giggling behind their backs.

Almost as if on cue, one of them steps up shyly and Raihan is immediately all pointy-teeth, sharp smiles and jovial familiarity. Without even a blink of surprise, he signs the body part that’s nervously presented to him and obliges when they hesitantly ask for a selfie.

Then, he turns back and points out, ‘Leon, I don’t—’

‘Shh!’

‘Huh?’ Raihan blinks.

Leon scowls. ‘I told you, use the code names!’

Raihan would scream again, but he doesn’t think he could handle any more weird stares. ‘I— You—’

Leon glares. Hard. ‘Say it.’

‘…Dande, I don’t think this is working out.’

Leon beams with the forcefulness of a thousand suns. ‘Very good, Kibana.’

A small, cute girl “accidentally” bumps into Leon, who quickly steadies her and asks if she’s okay. She nods, looking rather starstruck, and suddenly words are shooting out of her mouth faster than a school of Dreepy out of a Dragapult. All Raihan can really hear is “always be supporting you” and “my Champion no matter what”, but somehow Leon looks as if he’s following the one-sided conversation perfectly. He nods, flashing a Champion smile at his hyperventilating fan, and gives her a thumbs-up and promises to do his best like always.

Raihan politely waits for her to leave, then waits thirteen seconds, because by now he’s learned that that’s the precise amount of time needed for Leon to shed his public persona.

Once the thirteen seconds are up, he immediately drops his voice and hisses, ‘No, this is _not_ “very good”, I’m saying that these sunglasses aren’t enough to hide our identities—’

‘Of course not,’ Leon says breezily, ‘which is why, like I said earlier, we’re going shopping.’

Raihan blinks. ‘What?’

‘You never listen to me,’ Leon complains, shaking his head. ‘See, why do you think everyone recognises us?’

‘…Because your face has been plastered on nine out of the last ten walls?’

Leon cranes his head back so quickly that Raihan worries, for a second, that he’s finally gone and snapped his own neck. ‘Huh? Who was on the one?’

‘Nessa, modelling for a lingerie store.’

He mulls over it for a second too long. ‘That’s fine, I guess.’

‘You _guess_? Leon— I mean, _Dande_ ,’ Raihan corrects hastily (and weakly, because the idea of Leon filling out a lacy red bra is doing some strange things to the pit of his stomach) before Leon can turn that scowl on him, ‘uhh, what I meant to say was—’

An old lady hobbles up to them and presents them with a bag of sweet potatoes, and all thoughts relating to Leon and lingerie wipe themselves clean from Raihan’s mind in an instant. The old lady explains that the sweet potatoes are from her store, and that she’s raised sweet potatoes all her life, and that them eating those sweet potatoes would help coerce her impudent grandkids into eating the Champion™ sweet potatoes too. It’s a testament to their years of experience as celebrities when neither of them laugh or take her words with anything but grave understanding.

They end up seated on a bench with a bag of steaming hot sweet potatoes between them.

After they finish munching on two very delicious and very fat sweet potatoes, Leon picks up where they left off. ‘What _I_ meant to say was that they all recognise us because of our outfits,’ Leon explains, a little too level-headed and entirely too reasonable for Raihan’s tastes. ‘See, if you just did your hair in anything other than your charming dragon cosplay—’

Raihan chokes down a particularly large chunk of sweet potato. ‘For the last time, _it’s not a cosplay thing, Leon_ —’

‘—and if you wore normal boring clothes, then I really don’t think anyone would recognise you at all.’

Raihan blinks. That makes sense. A lot of sense, actually. He could probably just throw on a cap and something baggy and boring, and then he’d just be another tall guy in the crowd. ‘Okay. Then what about _you_? That hair’s not gonna un-purple-ify itself, now is it?’

Leon suddenly seems very fascinated with the tiles on the floor.

‘No!’ Raihan explodes, completely ignoring the stares of everyone around him. ‘You are _not_ —’

‘It bothers you, doesn’t it?’ Leon says suddenly, quiet and serious.

Raihan has no idea what he’s talking about. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘All the attention, when you’re with me.’

Raihan grabs his _stupid, stupid, goddamit-how-can-you-be-this-cute-and-stupid_ boyfriend by the shoulders and shakes his whole body with the same fervour he’d like to use on his neck. ‘Are you listening to yourself?’ he demands. ‘First of all, I’m an attention whore, I _like_ when they look at me even while I’m poking fish gills at the grocery store, and second of all, don’t you dare go dyeing that hair of yours a different colour just because you _think_ I’m ashamed of being seen in public with you.’

Dande, no, _Leon_ (godammit, those stupid code names are actually starting to grow on him) blinks owlishly. ‘Then what’s the problem?’

Raihan breathes in. Then he breathes out. Then he breathes in again. And, because breathing is an action that occurs in pairs, he breathes out again. ‘Dande, how many times have we been stopped by fans today?’

‘Three.’

‘What time was it when we got here?’

‘I don’t know, ten?’

‘It was a quarter past ten. What time is it now?’

Leon pulls out his phone. ‘Oh, it’s only ten twenty.’

They sit in silence. The bag sitting between them that once held steaming-hot sweet potatoes has now gotten cold and soggy.

Leon pulls the sunglasses off and exhales slowly. ‘Yeah, alright, I’ll cancel my appointment.’

Raihan pats him on the back encouragingly. ‘Right. Let’s just get you a different hat or something, yeah? I mean, you’ve inspired enough lookalikes, right? Purple hair’s not _that_ unusual these days, I’d imagine.’

And just like that, Leon’s perked up and cheerful again. ‘So you’re saying you’ll go along with my idea?’

Raihan bites his tongue. He can do it. He can take the L. He’ll do it for his cute, adorable, sneaky little bastard of a boyfriend.

It’s with great reluctance that he puts his pride in the same corner he’s been nursing his defeats for ten years and sighs. ‘Yeah, okay, we can try out your whole undercover dates idea.’

When Leon looks at him and smiles, Raihan finds himself falling in love all over again.

Sneaky bastard.

‘You can take the sunglasses off, y’know.’

Raihan looks up from the rack of jackets and finds himself meeting Leon’s eyes on the other side.

‘Huh?’

Leon pulls out the plain zip jacket Raihan’s been eyeing for the past five minutes and looks over it with a critical eye. People think that Raihan’s the one who’s into fashion (since he’s the one who uses social media actively _and_ personally) but one look at his gym outfit should honestly have been enough to quell _those_ dire misconceptions. If anything, Leon’s the fashionista. Unfortunately, it’s the sponsors that keep him from wearing whatever he pleases, which is probably why Leon’s having the time of his life playing dress-up with Raihan as his (willing?) doll.

And because Leon is the one with a fashion sense, he points out, ‘We’re indoors, I don’t think most people wear sunglasses indoors.’

‘You’re the one who suggested it.’

The corner of Leon’s lip quirks upward for a brief second. ‘I just wanted to see you in glasses. You look very good, by the way.’

Raihan rolls his eyes. Of course _this_ was what he’d had in mind. ‘I can get glasses if you want.’

Leon looks up and beams, hugging the soft jacket to his chest. ‘I’ll pay,’ he offers sunnily.

‘I have a salary too, you know.’

‘Yeah, but I make—’

Raihan quickly claps a hand over his boyfriend’s blabbermouth. He knows how absurd he looks, stretching _over_ a display rack at a high-end department store, but if word about Leon’s salary makes it onto the headlines of the evening news, they’re gonna have to cancel their reservations for the Rayquaza-themed pop-up café he’s been trying to get into for _months_. And hey, if he’s got the height, why not use it, right?

Leon licks his palm, because _of course he would_.

Raihan withdraws cautiously, if only out of pity for the frantic sales assistant hovering on the edge of his vision. There’s no way she’d have the courage or heart to tell the former champion _and_ the current strongest gym leader in the nation not to horse around in her section. ‘If I let you pay, will you promise to make sure that we don’t end up having to cancel our dinner date?’

For some reason, Leon looks rather cross. ‘You know, you could’ve just told me about that. The café organisers offered me free tickets months ago.’

Now it’s Raihan’s turn to be cross. ‘I don’t want to go in exchange for some sponsor’s marketing budget,’ he insists. ‘Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to all the other fans who have to suffer the shitty lottery system to get a shot at even _accessing_ the reservation page.’

Leon’s giving him a strange, contemplative look. ‘Hmm,’ is all he has to say.

‘What?’

His expression is serious, but there’s quiet warmth in his eyes. ‘Nothing. I’m just glad at least one of us hasn’t changed.’

When Raihan spots the most perfect clothing brand in the distance, he knows what duty Arceus itself must have placed him on this earth to fulfil.

‘Dande, look.’

Leon looks up from the receipt he’s been scrutinising for the last minute or so. ‘Hm?’

Raihan points at the logo in front of them, the bags on his hands jostling excitedly. ‘C’mon, you _have_ to. It’s perfect.’

Leon stares at the Champion branded hoodie blankly. ‘Abso-fucking-lutely not,’ he says flatly.

Raihan stares back. ‘Did—did you just say fuck?’

‘I’ve had to live with this pun _every day of my life the last ten years, you absolute twat_ —’

‘Aha, but see, that’s the thing!’ One of the benefits of being rivals-turned-boyfriends with an unbeatable champion is that, eventually, you get the hang of how to turn his own tricks against him, and it’s a good thing that Raihan’s spent more than half of his life doing just that. ‘No one would ever think it’d be you. Only some awful lookalike would ever make a truly terrible joke out of the one sole identifying character trait the media’s pinned on you for most of your life.’

Leon’s never been good at being anything but transparent, so Raihan can see the exact moment his calculative look turns contemplative. ‘I mean, I _guess_ …’

‘Hey, I said OK to your idea, didn’t I? It’d be a real shame if our scheme didn’t turn out perfect, wouldn’t it?’ Raihan mentally pats himself on the back for a job well done. There’s no way his perfectionist boyfriend could back down from that.

Dande— no, not Dande, Leon, his boyfriend’s real name is _Leon_ — walks up to a glaringly red hoodie and hesitantly picks the hanger off the rack. The logo is emblazoned front and center. It would stretch right across his chest, and even Raihan has to admit that if he saw a Leon-shaped man wearing that monstrosity, he’d take one look at the logo, snort in disbelief, then immediately look away.

Leon must have come to the same conclusion, because he glances at Raihan sideways and says, ‘Fine, but you’ve gotta put your hair in a cute little ponytail.’

Raihan blanches. Arceus-given duty or not, he still has _some_ things he won’t do. ‘I’ll look like a girl.’

‘So?’ Leon raises one eyebrow. It’s not fair how Raihan’s insides do somersaults every time Leon makes those vaguely arrogant, superior expressions. ‘I’ll look like a real git. I thought we were both trying to be exactly what we’re not.’

On one hand, Raihan thinks he looks absurd with his hair down, let alone in a “cute little ponytail”. On the other, Dande— uh— Leon probably thinks that wearing a hoodie made by the fashion brand Champion makes _him_ look absurd, especially after the sting of his still-recent loss. It’s a more than fair trade.

‘Alright,’ Raihan agrees reluctantly. ‘But let’s go get something to eat, all this shopping is making me hungry.’

After a quick lunch stop that involves not one, not two, but _three_ groups of adoring teenagers trying to hit on one (or, in the case of one particularly enterprising young lady, the _both_ ) of them, Raihan finds himself getting bodily dragged back to his own apartment. He had been all smiles and whistles until they rounded a corner and Leon suddenly grabbed the back of his jacket and _yanked_.

‘Huh—’ Raihan squirms, confused. ‘Hey, Leon, what are you—’

Leon’s public-persona smile and public-service voice are both too-tight when he bites out, ‘We’re going to change into our outfits. Right. Now.’

Raihan shoves Leon’s hands off him and stumbles upright. ‘I can walk on my own, you know.’

Leon says nothing, not for the rest of the walk back to Raihan’s modest apartment building, not for the agonisingly awkward twenty second trip up the elevator, not for the good minute or so Raihan takes to dig for his keys among all the shopping bags they’ve collected over the course of a day.

Once they’re through the threshold of his doorway, Raihan’s not at all surprised to find himself pressed against a wall. He can’t help the little chuckle that escapes through his nose when Leon’s lips and teeth find their way to the juncture between his neck and collarbone.

‘What’s so funny?’ Leon murmurs, nipping Raihan’s neck. He’s obviously still testy.

Raihan closes his eyes and relaxes into his boyfriend’s grip. Leon’s got him pretty much pinned to the wall with nothing but the strength of his arms anyway, and Raihan’s certainly enjoying his current predicament. ‘Nothing. It’s just— I always thought I’d be the one chasing after you, y’know?’

This time, Leon presses a gentle kiss to his neck and shuts him up with a short, curt, ‘No.’

Raihan admires Leon’s handiwork in the mirror, tracing a finger over the tell-tale bruising on his neck. ‘That’s a pretty colour.’

Leon straightens the nondescript black cap covering his hair, which he’d somehow coerced into a messy braid. He’s all smiles and sunshine again, which means that he’s managed to cheer himself up. ‘Thank you. I made that.’

‘Yes you did,’ Raihan agrees agreeably, until he catches sight of Leon smirking to himself. ‘What?’

‘Nothing,’ he says. ‘You’re in a good mood, huh?’

Raihan pulls his new skinny khaki pants over his ankles, and then starts the uphill battle of coercing them over his damnably long legs. ‘I’ve been looking forward to the Rayquaza café for weeks,’ is the explanation he offers, even though they both know his current mood is thanks to a whole other event entirely.

Leon bunches the accursed Champion hoodie up so that it easily slides over his head, then squirms his way into the sleeve holes. He’s already put on a plain white tee and his basketball shorts, so when Raihan glances at him again, he’s instantly struck by how _normal_ Leon looks outside of his Battle Tower or Champion outfits. Sure, he’s still smoking hot, but more in the “I put in a normal human amount of effort into my appearance today” way and less so in the “fifty assistants cried trying to make my entire body perfectly symmetrical without photo editing” way.

Once Leon’s satisfied with how he looks, he turns back and scrutinises Raihan from top to toe. ‘Where’s the glasses?’ he demands.

‘Some of us do the face stuff _after_ we put our jackets on,’ Raihan grumbles, rolling on his side in a futile attempt to get his pants over his thighs without leaving the bed. ‘By the way, I have no idea how you manage to rip my pants off so quickly every time.’

‘Practice makes perfect,’ Leon says airily. He reaches over and tugs at Raihan’s pants from somewhere in the back, and instantly they’re perfectly fitted around his waist and thighs.

Raihan stares and shakes his head. ‘I give up,’ he grumbles miserably, shoulders sagging as he reaches for one of the hair ties (that Leon has magicked out of nowhere, it would seem) and ties his hair into a cursory bun. Then, he puts on the oversized jacket (Leon had “accidentally” bought it in _his_ size, not Raihan’s, so now he literally looks like he’s wearing his boyfriend’s clothes, because, well, he kind of _is_ ) and straightens his whole outfit while checking himself out in the mirror.

Beside him, Leon is suspiciously excited. Raihan rolls his eyes when he reveals the glasses in his hands, but the most Raihan does to comment on it is give him a look before putting them on. They’re purely decorative, but it’s still strange to suddenly find his vision confined to the insides of a small, rectangular frame.

He blinks once, then twice. The man looking back at him in the mirror looks nothing like his usual self. It’s not unwelcome per se, but it certainly is different.

He looks at Leon. His rival-boyfriend looks absolutely smitten. Raihan sighs, but he’s smiling when he says, ‘Ready to go, Dande?’

Leon reaches over to zip his jacket all the way up, taking particular care to arrange the folds of the hood so that it hides the hickey. There’s something about the way Leon looks at him that reminds him of all their times on the battlefield, his thoughtful gaze cutting through all of Raihan’s strategies and seeing right into him for what he’s thinking and what he is.

The moment is ruined when Leon muses, ‘You made the reservation under your actual name, didn’t you?’

Raihan’s happy thoughts screech to a halt.

Leon laughs. ‘It’s fine, we can break character for just one person.’

‘I— no—’ Raihan’s holding his head in his hands, frustrated, ‘Leon that’s _not the point_ — The paparazzi will be there, they’ll ruin the date, I can’t believe I—’

‘Like you said,’ Leon says, far-too-amused and far-too-pleased with himself, and Raihan puts his fretting on hold for a moment to listen, ‘if we show up like this, no one will even take more than a second glance at us. Besides, is it really that big a deal? They’ve been writing stories about us for years anyway, at this point us having clandestine meetings would just come off as part of the rumour mill.’

Raihan shoots him a suspicious look. ‘When did you get so old and wise?’ he demands.

Leon unleashes that silly little smile that hits Raihan right in his weaknesses. ‘I learn from the best, my dear Kibana. Now let’s go, you know I’ll end up getting lost and we don’t want to be late.’

**Author's Note:**

> their "code names" are their japanese names, and every time raihan calls leon by his "code name" in his internal monologues it's cos i'm the one who accidentally typed the wrong name lmao
> 
> their outfits (and the prompt in general) are inspired by a wonderful artist's comic [edit: link removed at artist's request]
> 
> leon's champion hoodie is [this monstrosity which i also happen to own](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71cJZyPo3KL._AC_UX425_.jpg)
> 
> come yell at me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/syorobao) or leave me a comment bc i love attention as much as raihan does \o/


End file.
